SmartClassroom :: Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Viewpoint

Are You a 'Smart Classroom' and/or eLearning Guru?

Campus Technology is looking for short opinion pieces (500-800 words) for this e-letter, from experts in the areas of Smart Classroom technology (presentation, display, and related) and eLearning (including CMS/LMS, online collaboration, and online and remote learning programs). We are seeking those individuals with broad and varied experience in the technology decision-making process, implementation, and teaching/learning challenges and benefits that surround the technology use. We are seeking opinion pieces on current or timely topics only; controversial matters are welcome.

Campus IT and educational technology professionals are welcome to contribute, as are higher education technology consultants.

All contributions accepted for publication will carry the author's byline and will be reimbursed with a $150 stipend after an invoice is requested and submitted. We offer no stipend for unpublished pieces, and reserve the right to edit accepted articles. Contributors may submit and be published multiple times.

Contributors to this e-letter will not only reach the large audience of Campus Technology e-letter readers and website visitors (and maybe even develop a following!), but may also be considered to author columns and/or features for the flagship print publication, with freelance (not stipend) remuneration.

Send your opinion pieces (or proposals) to: Dave Nagel, Executive Editor, Web, [email protected].

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News & Product Updates

Blackboard, SFLC Respond to Patent Reexam

Responding to a request from the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) decided Jan. 25 that it would indeed reexamine Blackboard's disputed and controversial patent on technologies used in course management systems. Both Blackboard Inc. and the SFLC, which represents open-source CMS developers, responded to the decision in separate interviews with Campus Technology....

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Students Better Informed Without CMS, Says Researcher

Students who receive course materials in class performed "significantly higher" on end of semester tests of their knowledge than those who received the materials via a course management system, according to a study by a researcher at Penn State....

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U. Kansas Class Teaches Film Making in VR, Second Life

The University of Kansas is offering film students a new course this semester on the theory and production of films in the online environment....

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Case Study

Online Learning in Robust Health at Johns Hopkins

Distance learning has come a long way. Just ask students at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. Online courses there are taken by some 2,000 graduate students in 84 countries around the world. But the school has discovered that fully half of those courses are being taken by full-time students on the Baltimore, MD main campus. Some of the appeal is the convenience and flexibility of an online offering, of course. But Bloomberg is clearly doing an extraordinary job designing online courses, some of which are rated more highly by students than their onsite counterparts.

In another interesting twist, converting a standard course to online often results in positive changes to the onsite course as well, according to Brian Klaas, senior Web systems developer.

Students at Bloomberg are public health professionals and research scientists from around the world. The sophisticated courses that the school offers over the Internet include audio lectures, slides, animations, interactive quizzes, professional illustrations of health issues, movies, online threaded discussions, live lectures, and more. To participate, a student needs just a Web browser and an Adobe Flash plugin....

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Tech Notes

Social Software >> Social Revolution

Move over, Myspace. Step aside, Facebook. These two technologies may have been pioneers in the world of social software, but nowadays, colleges and universities across the country are embracing better and more targeted forms of technology, to enable their campus users to interact. Today, the world of social software includes traditional venues and formats: blogs, wikis, and podcasts. It also features fresh spins on these old standards, as well as newer, more robust technologies designed to facilitate collaboration for students and administrators alike.... (Campus Technology)

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Reader Response

We want to hear from you!

What does "smart" classroom technology mean to your campus? Share your viewpoint, experiences, and questions with your peers by writing to us at [email protected].

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